The US Senate has passed Financial Reform today 07-15-10 in Congress. What a glad thing to hear thank God. No more tricks or traps from Wall Street to Main Street of America. So we have Health Care Reform passed, Financial Reform passed, the House has passed a Climate Energy Bill that is currently still pending in the Senate, and Immigration Reform will be the toughest of all I believe

Quoting propilot83 (Thread starter):What a glad thing to hear thank God. No more tricks or traps from Wall Street to Main Street of America. So we have Health Care Reform passed, Financial Reform passed, the House has passed a Climate Energy Bill that is currently still pending in the Senate

This bill addresses a lot of the problems that led to the disaster in the last two years.

1. Mortgage Reform: No More "Liar Loans' or loans without documentation. You would think this would have been an easy one for most lenders to follow, but since brokers kept getting paid to sell mortgages, they stopped caring about whether consumers could pay for them or not. Now Authentic documentation is required . You may argue that this is unnecessary regulation, but as we are learning about now, it is not unnecessary.

The down side. It will cause housing prices to keep going down for awhile. Not pretty, but that is what we get in this free trade econony of globalization where we can't hold Manufacturing jobs.

2. Prepayment Penalties will no longer be allowed.

I like this one. No one should have to pay a penalty for being able to pay off a debt sooner than required. Banks can use the added capital to go make more loans so they shouldn't profit off it both ways.

3. Debt Card Interchange Fees.

This could have been left out for all I care. I say let the free market decide. However mastercard and visa have a pretty heavy duopoly on this, so I can see this being needed to hold down the charges.

4. An All-Powerful Consumer Watchdog

This is the part of the bill that troubles me. I see the need for it with payday loans and all, but I do think this is a waste of spending.

5. Bank Bailouts. This language is definately needed. We need to know what and where the governemnt will step in. It also makes the lines pretty clear as to what will occur if they do step in.

The investor portions of the bill are pork and will protect no one that doesn't investigate items for themselves.

All in all we need thsi bill. Parts of it .. no. But sadly we need most of it.

Yes baby reform after reform, we need laws or else these country would be headed straight into the sewer. Yes we need big government, dont you just like the world "Federal"? I love it, I mean I moved from an old sticking as* 3 bedroom apartment paying $1,300 after my father passed away in 2006 and we moved into a 3 bedroom nice apartment complex in a rich community under HUD (Housing and Urban Development) Section 3 low income. They only charge 30% of your gross income for rent, so I only pay $391 a month right now. If you stop working or loose your job, then your rent is $0 thats right, how cool is that I mean its not a good thing to loose or job or quit working, I am just saying that if you get fired or laid off or something, big government helps out big time. When a repair or work order is needed, onsite maintenance technicans repair or replace whatever needs to be fixed in the apartment (plumbing, electrical, HVAC, etc. etc.) When I lived in my other apartment that wasnt under HUD, there were no safety inspections, no repairs for years, my A/C never worked and was never repaired by the damn greedy owner of those apartment complexes and the manager of those apartments couldnt do anything.

Quoting casinterest (Reply 3):This bill addresses a lot of the problems that led to the disaster in the last two years.

1. Mortgage Reform: No More "Liar Loans' or loans without documentation. You would think this would have been an easy one for most lenders to follow, but since brokers kept getting paid to sell mortgages, they stopped caring about whether consumers could pay for them or not. Now Authentic documentation is required . You may argue that this is unnecessary regulation, but as we are learning about now, it is not unnecessary.

The down side. It will cause housing prices to keep going down for awhile. Not pretty, but that is what we get in this free trade econony of globalization where we can't hold Manufacturing jobs.

2. Prepayment Penalties will no longer be allowed.

I like this one. No one should have to pay a penalty for being able to pay off a debt sooner than required. Banks can use the added capital to go make more loans so they shouldn't profit off it both ways.

3. Debt Card Interchange Fees.

This could have been left out for all I care. I say let the free market decide. However mastercard and visa have a pretty heavy duopoly on this, so I can see this being needed to hold down the charges.

4. An All-Powerful Consumer Watchdog

This is the part of the bill that troubles me. I see the need for it with payday loans and all, but I do think this is a waste of spending.

5. Bank Bailouts. This language is definately needed. We need to know what and where the governemnt will step in. It also makes the lines pretty clear as to what will occur if they do step in.

cas, this whole thing can be regulated by the market, if the government and other special interest groups allow the market to work.

For one, I believe the Community Reivestment Act shoulld be repealed before this monstrosity is rolled out. The act actually encouraged lenders to lend to borrowers that may not have been able to repay, among its other provisions.

I'm sorry, I just can't endorse bigger government in area that it already has a massive presence. To me, this recession was gaoing to happen (normal business cycle) but was much steeper and dangerous because of government regulation and interference, not the lack of it.

Quoting fr8mech (Reply 1):Oh joy. The industry that is second only to healthcare in regulation will get more regulation.

Are you in favor of abolishing government oversight of health care? Maybe we can start with the taxpayers money wasted on testing medical professionals to see if they should be given a license. Hell, get rid of the license alltogether - it's a socialist plot!

And requiring drug companies to go through rigorous testing for new drugs? All that does is delay entry into the market, robbing shareholders of the profits they deserve.

And all of this socialist mamby-pamby of taking care of people who can't afford care. Total waste of the taxpayer's money. Just let them die fast so the socialist in the White House won't need to steal as much of our hard earned money.

Same for other industries, like commercial air travel. We can cut half of the costs of an airline if we get rid of all that overpriced regulation.

And, let's face it. The financial sector is supposed to make really, really big profits from the lower class. Why should they be regulated? It's just inefficient and we're supposed to be a free society.

Quoting Ken777 (Reply 7):Are you in favor of abolishing government oversight of health care?

That's a straw man argument and you know it. No where have I said that government should not regulate healthcare or the fianancial sector or other areas of the economy, where necessary. What I am saying is that over-regulation by any government is inefficient and causes more problems than it solves.

Is some regulation necessary? Yes, but there is a point of diminishing returns where regulation becomes burdensome and counter-productive.

No, it was thrust upon them by the feel-gooders around the country who demanded that the banks abandon their good sense and lend to every Tom, Dick and Harry that walked through the door. The causes of this recession are complex and diverse, but a main component was the housing crisis, and that was thrust upon the banks by the proponents of the CRA and other feel good entities.

Oh, by the way, foes this monstrosity of legislation address Freddie and Fannie?

Quoting alberchico (Reply 6):Yes and that dosen't make us socialists as some righties claimed

It doesn't matter if it's medicine or the financial sector - there will always be a group that will develop new scams, or ways to rip off patients or the public. They open a hole and we close it with new regulations - and hopefully prison sentences.